


love is stronger than death

by Tobi_Black



Series: If at first you don't succeed, try again [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Tatsuki Arisawa, Echoes of a Past Life reasserting themselves, Gen, Hollow Ichigo & the Horse and the King metaphor, Hollow Ichigo's bloodlust, Ichigo's Sealed Zanpaku-tou, Isshin Being Isshin, Isshin may have spent a little too much time with Urahara in the last twenty years, Kurosaki Ichigo is Shiba Kaien, Kurosaki Ichigo-centric, Quincy!Ichigo, Reincarnation, Rukia's face-blindness, Shinigami Society, Shinigami/Zanpakutou Bond, Soul Memories, and how that might transfer over to other parts of life for shinigami, applying Daemon logic to Zanpaku-tou, fighting philosophies - in regards to fighting hollows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-01-25 18:13:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 8,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18579883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobi_Black/pseuds/Tobi_Black
Summary: Being a substitute shinigami was a bit like being thrown into the deep end of the pool; it was sink-or-swim, no time to take it slow.It was a good thing he was a strong swimmer, when a hollow showed up around Orihime.





	1. Rukia

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Didn't Expect To See You Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/734469) by [cywscross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/cywscross). 



_5:48 P.M._

Rukia _meant_ to pay attention throughout Ichigo’s practice, but there was only so many times she could watch him go through forms.

He’d taken to using a blade like a fish to water, but frankly he was wielding one larger than she’d seen any normal-sized shinigami so mostly the first few practices had just been him mentally adjusting to the longer reach of his zanpaku-tō.

Even after several hours of this – which had been _mind-numbingly_ boring, because he’d honestly not needed her to correct his stance or grip like she’d been half-expecting, doing something wrong once before he fixed it – she’d still been paying attention because sometimes, there would be a moment when he’d move and it was like he forgot what weapon he was holding.

Like he had in the park, sometimes he would move like he should have been holding something like a trident.

She wanted to dismiss it, because he was doing exactly what he should do considering he was handling something closer to an odachi than the more typical katana, but she couldn’t as she wasn’t sure she was seeing it like that because that was what she was expecting to see from him. A trident had been Shiba-fukutaichou’s weapon of choice, and she wondered why if his zanpaku-tō was unsealed – maybe even already in shikai – why that wasn’t what he was handling.

To distract herself from that puzzle – as there was honestly no way to know one way or another – she only loosely ‘supervised’ his practice until he’d seemed satisfied with his forms, trying to think of ways he could get more comfortable with the blade without a sparring partner or throwing him into a fight with another hollow.

The next day when they met after school for practice, she brought the contraption Urahara had loaned her and a manga she’d grabbed from the twin Kurosaki girls’ room to read.

She waved him off to practice making split-second decisions of what to hit with the batting machine while she read “The Jade Hermitage”. Before she realized it, she’d been sucked into the story, and wasn’t paying him any attention until he was abruptly leaning over her shoulder, “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

Rukai startled, jumping a bit before scrambling back a few steps, “Eeek!!” – holding the book tightly to her chest, over where her heart was trying to beat its way out – “Oooh! You scared me!”

He raised an eyebrow at her, before pointedly looking at the manga with judgement.

She couldn’t help puffing up defensively – it had been a decent read, very enlightening to what the mortal world was like now – “I’m studying the contemporary vernacular of this world!”

His gaze got even more judgmental, “You were not. You were reading a stupid horror comic while _I_ was training.” – then curious – “Where’d you get it anyway? Karin’s the only person I know who owns a copy.”

Which was who she’d gotten the manga from, by raiding the girl’s collection of horror books while she ate breakfast – and if he figured that out, he’d figure out she was living in his closet currently, “You finished training?”

He took the bait-and-switch, “I hit these stupid pepper balls a hundred times, right? I’m done!”

Ichigo sneezed.

“Fool! Only the _wrong_ balls had pepper in them!” Rukia was upset, but also reluctantly impressed at his reflexes because Urahara had tweaked for the one set of balls she’d marked with a hand to go considerably faster by being lighter.

Not that he seemed to have noticed that, “Wrong balls?”

“That’s right.”

They just looked at each other as that processed for Rukia – that he might not noticed because he hadn’t differentiated between the head and the hand balls, “You . . didn’t hit every single one, did you?”

He nodded, “Yep, every one!”

Her eye twitched at his pleased tone, proud of himself for not letting a single one past him. She felt the distinct urge to take off her sandal and _beat him_ with it, but resisted by a hair, “You idiot! I told you to only hit the balls with heads!”

Ichigo didn’t back down as she got in his face, “How should I know?!” – reaching over and fishing out a pair of the balls to hold out to her – “It’s impossible to tell the hands from the heads the way you draw!”


	2. Chapter 2

Rukia stole the ball with the head drawn on it out of his hand, holding it up to his face, “Listen! The head is a hollow’s weak spot. One good whack will split it open like a melon! This training is to help you with precision, no matter the situation.”

Ichigo _understood_ what she was getting at, because a part of him had recognized that fact already and hence why there were dead hollows under his belt, but he thought she was forgetting something. Like letting _anything_ get past him was deadly to both him and whoever he was protecting.

He crossed his arms over his shirt, “Why do I have to do that? I’ve been defeating them just fine – _and_ no one got hurt.”

She flailed for a second, like she couldn’t believe he wasn’t getting it, “When did you ever finish a hollow with one blow?! Approaching a hollow from behind and killing it in one blow is the _essence_ of hollow hunting. The fight is over before it could begin! It’s a _miracle_ you survived fighting them as you have!”

Honestly, that was a bit rude, he hadn’t even been close to losing to these, _small fry_.

(A part of him was indignant, **_like we would die fighting them; they were all weak, and we are_ strong _!_** )

Ichigo wanted to protest about how killing a hollow from behind is unfair, because it went against everything he did in a fight. His code of conduct might have been _bushido_ -like, but it had kept him out of trouble with the law – the local police knew he didn’t start fights often, and not without good reason, nor fought underhanded even when outnumbered, which had kept the few inquiries about his fights with delinquents, just that, inquiries, and _not_ charges of assault.

(Another part of him had to concede, _there is no honor in a fair fight with these hollows, it would be wasted and just endanger not just yourself but others._ )

A lifetime of habit would not be easy to break, particularly when he didn’t quite agree.

He frowned, flashes of memories before his eyes there and gone in not enough time to _understand_ , but the sentiment was there – it had always been there for him, “As long as no one else get hurt and the hollows are killed, does it matter?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a voice behind him, “Hi, Kurosaki-kun!”

They both jumped, spinning around to face the girl who’d snuck up on them, “Inoue! Wh-what are you doing here?"


	3. Chapter 3

Orihime giggled, “Hee hee! Shopping for dinner! I bought leeks, butter, bananas, and bean jam jelly.”

Ichigo just blinked, trying to think of any combination of any of those ingredients making _anything_ appetizing, but he came up blank and decided discretion was the better part of valor when it came to Orihime and food. Luckily, she didn’t think anything of his silence while trying to think of what he could say to get her off that particular subject.

“What are you doing out here, Kurosaki-kun?”

Unfortunately, she picked the one subject that he wanted to talk about just as little as her food, “I’m um . .”

It wasn’t even that he intended to lie, it was just embarrassing that he’d had one task and he’d attacked it so zealously as to fail. Though admittedly, if she started asking questions about the _why_ he was out batting, he didn’t know what to say – each answer he could think of just lead to more questions that led to talking about how he could see ghosts. Not that he thought _she’d_ judge, but he’d done his best to not talk about it around the school lest it led to more of the same reactions as his _natural_ orange hair.

Then she looked around him, “Kuchiki-san!?”

Rukia just blinked, “Do I know you?”

He leaned over, hissing out, “Idiot! She’s Inoue Orihime! She’s in our class!”

Rukia immediately smiled, dipping into a curtsey, “Well, hello, Inoue-san! How do you do, my dear!”

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine, thank you.” Ichigo stared at the two for a moment, because, seriously? Rukia had clearly read some weird manga and was imitating foreign manners, and Orihime was playing along with it.

Ignoring the whole interaction there, he looked at Orihime a little more closely because he could have sworn that he’d seen a bandage on her arm, “What happened? Did you fall again?”

She blinked, “Huh?” – the faintly pensive look on her face wiped away like it had never been, before he tapped at his own left arm so she understood – “Oh. No, I was run over.”

“Run over!? By a car!?”

Orihime smiled and nodded, “I went out to buy a drink last night and- bam! I’ve been getting run over a lot lately.”

With Rukia just watching, not seeming to understand how _lucky_ Orihime was only to get away with a graze, Ichigo increasingly felt like the only one here having a proportionate reaction to this. He tried to take a deep breath and _not_ sound like he wanted to tear out his hair, “ _More_ than once?”

She nodded, and he felt his eye twitch – Tatsuki would have his _head_ if she found out that he didn’t follow up about whether this was a result of Orihime just not always paying attention to the road, “That’s serious! Aren’t you upset? You could have died!”

Orihime frowned, “They didn’t hit me on purpose.”

That wasn’t his point.

“Please tell me they at least noticed.”

She chewed on her lip, which was all the answer he needed, “Even if they didn’t mean to hit you, Inoue, they should have at least noticed. That’s dangerous, and you aren’t the only one crossing roads in the evening. Karin sometimes stays out until 6 playing soccer.”

Rukia interrupted him before he could go into the whole speech he’d been practicing for Karin and Yuzu regarding things that they had let slide and really shouldn’t have, in preparation of their first _real_ crushes and his duty as big brother, “Does Inoue-san get hurt a lot?”

“Almost every day.” But usually little things, not hit-by-a-car things.

Orihime smiled, rubbing at the back of her head, “I day dream.”

His eye twitched, “Don’t be so casual about it!”

(A part of him spoke up, **there are traces of a hollow’s reiatsu on her**.)

Ichigo stilled even before Rukia knelt, “That bruise on your leg? May I take a look?”

(Another chittered agitatedly, **_she’s been marked as prey! They saved her life so they could eat her soul themselves!_** )

“Huh? This? Sure, go ahead.” – he looked at her leg, and felt a little color bleed from his face at the massive bruise from just above her ankle to above her skirt hem at her knee, looking vaguely like a handprint – “I got this last night. It must have happened when the car hit me.”

( _Didn’t her older brother die after being hit by a car? It would make sense that while he does want to eat her soul, enough remains of him to not want what kills her to not be by what killed him._ )

“Rukia? Why are you looking like that?” Rukia looked pensive, and he didn’t doubt she could see how the bruise looked like a hand as well, “Huh? Oh, it’s nothing. It just looks so painful.”

Orihime looked surprised, “How did you know!? My leg hurts worse than my arm!”

( _Because that wasn’t a physical wound, but one soul-deep._ )

He frowned, “Inoue, I can have my dad look at that bruise. You could have fractured something and not even know with that bruise.”

She blushed – why was she blushing? Embarrassment? _Why??_ – before nodding, and he looked at Rukia, who had her own frown, “See you tomorrow.”

He left her there to escort Orihime to Kurosaki Clinic.


	4. Rukia

For a moment, Rukia watched Ichigo leave with Orihime.

In that moment, she thought he was perceptive, noting that Orihime was at risk and making it his duty to see that she would be safe for the moment. While he stood guard, she intended to investigate the hollow that had made Orihime its target, who was likely a recently dead close family member to the girl that couldn’t let go of her.

Then she saw how the other girl was looking at him with big doe eyes, cheeks stained red, walking closer than necessary, and Ichigo just started walking faster, vocally worried that she had a fever and what that might mean from a medical standpoint.

She face-palmed.

Orihime was throwing out every sign in the book that she liked him, and he wasn’t getting a clue.

She was _sure_ that she’d remembered Shiba-fukutaichou tipsily telling the story of how he’d met his wife and how they’d been friends and he’d realized she was the one for him so he’d asked her on a date. Perhaps she was remembering wrong though.

Looking back, it _would_ explain why when Miyako-sama retrieved him and heard this, she’d snorted before tossing her husband over her shoulder.

If only Miyako-sama hadn’t gone on that mission the next day.


	5. Chapter 5

Ichigo felt his eye twitch as he walked into the Clinic, doing his best to ignore how he could feel someone watching them.

He couldn’t quite though, because while he could _easily_ imagine that it was Rukia, laughing at him for something, he didn’t think it was. It didn’t feel like her reiatsu.

( ** _-come on, motherfucker! I’ll devour you bones and all!_** -)

He ushered her inside, feeling his fingers twitch and not seeing the sparks that flickered around his hands, _wanting_ to turn around and raise his weapon in front of him.

(He didn’t know if he wanted to grasp the handle of a bow, pulling on the drawstring and notching an arrow.

Or call out something a little more _close-quarters_.)

Once inside, he was distracted, trying to pin down where this other presence was coming from, but he was with it enough to call out, “Goat-Face! We have a patient!” Just in time too, as his father came barreling down from the hall, skidding to a stop just before he could fly into a kick towards him at the sight of Orihime shyly waving from at his shoulder.

The older man coughed, smoothing back a few fly-away strands of hair and straightening his white coat.

(Was his mind playing tricks on him or did it feel _wrong_ to not see a different white coat, one marked in black and numbered?)

“Inoue-san, it’s good to see you under better circumstances. What can I do for you?”

She gestured down at her leg, “I was hit by a car last night. Kurosaki-kun was concerned it’s not just a bruise.”

His father looked at the wound – and he _knew_ what it was, where it had come from, Ichigo was _sure_ of it – before sheepishly smiling, “Ma, Ichigo is a bit of a worrywart. But he was right to ask me to take a look, you shouldn’t just brush aside a wound like this. You could have fractured something. If you would allow it, I would just like to check to make sure it’s nothing more serious than that bruise.”

Orihime nodded, blushing, while throwing him a side-ways glance.

He scowled, glaring at where he could _almost_ identify whoever was watching them was watching _from_ , crossing his arms, “He might seem like an idiot, but Goat-Face knows what he’s doing.”

Normally, at this point, Ichigo would be kicked out of the room while Yuzu joined their father as his de-facto nurse because she had an actual interest in medicine instead of just a by-stander knowledge from proximity. His father gave a sly grin, half-heartedly trying to cover it with fanned fingers, “Ho ho, your _friend_ -“

Karin walked into the room and punched him in the arm, “Quit it, Goat Face.”

Orihime was bright red as Karin escorted her into the actual clinic, while their father was sobbing into their mother’s giant poster, “Masaki! Our children are so mean to Daddy!”


	6. Rukia

_8:52 p.m._

She’d looked for hours, but Rukia hadn’t found any sign of the hollow; hadn’t been able to even vaguely identify where it was because Ichigo’s reiatsu clogged her senses.

So instead, she’d gone for _identifying_ the hollow in hopes of pinning down a search area, and Urahara had let her access public records at his shoten. Once she’d figured out the interface for the ‘internet’ – so much both like and not like her soul pager – it had been easy to find out who the hollow could be.

Sora Inoue, fifteen-year-older brother to Orihime, who’d died in a car accident three years ago.

 _At Kurosaki clinic_.

She’d rushed back, worried that the hollow would attack the Kurosaki family first in anger over its death, only to watch Orihime leave with her leg bound up – and the sense of _hollow-bait_ hanging around her _gone_.

That felt like proof of which way the elder Kurosaki leaned regarding Shiba-taichou, but there wasn’t time to ponder that when just on the edges of her senses here, a hollow flitted around, waiting at a distance but still _close_.

If she didn’t know better, she said it – he, if she was right on the hollow being Sora Inoue – was torn on who he should go after: Orihime, or Ichigo/the Kurosaki family. And she wasn’t sure that she _did_ , as it lingered where it was, somewhere between the two even as she slipped inside the clinic and settled down to hurry and wait for when it decided.


	7. Chapter 7

Ichigo wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t go with Orihime to make sure she made it home safe, she’d turned down his offer and following her anyway wasn’t something he was willing to do without real reason.

Because that sense he had of whoever was watching said they were still _there_ , and hadn’t moved in hours.

His guard stayed up even as he started in on his evening routine as if nothing was wrong, not wanting to alarm Yuzu or Karin unnecessarily. It wasn’t a normal day though, as he didn’t linger in the bath for longer than it took to wash off the day’s sweat and grime even if the hot water felt _nice_.

Walking back upstairs to his room with the intention of hopping out his window and searching out Rukia so she could knock him out of his body and he could hunt down whoever was acting like the asshole walking on his grave, he saw Yuzu open the door of his room, “Ichigo-nii!”

“Hey! Knock before entering!”

She turned towards him, smiling, “So, you were downstairs.” – then pouted a bit – “You took a bath! I was gonna take one too!”

(For just a moment, it wasn’t Yuzu standing in front of him pouting at being denied the chance to bath with him, but a girl around her size and a younger boy, both with dark hair.)

He ruffled her – their – hair, “Crazy kid-.”

(For just a moment, he expected to hear a whine, “ _Niiii-saaaaann!_ You’re messing up my hair!”, but that was the wrong girl, wasn’t it? That girl had grown up, and would have just cackled as she ground her fist into his head to mess up his in return.

This one just smiled, and leaned into his hand.)

“Aren’t you in fifth grade now? You can take a bath by yourself.”

She huffed, pouting, “You’ve gotten mean since you started high school.”

Ichigo just smiled faintly, “No, I haven’t.”

As he opened his door, she peered around him, “Have you seen my dress?”

“Yeah, there was a rip in the hem when I saw it in the laundry yesterday, I grabbed it so I could mend it.” Specifically, he had mended it in the style their mother had taught them, which had a tendency to incorporate two different-sized overlapping crosses and a circle into any sort of needlework – and the small tear had gained that design three times over because it had been a while since he had beat Yuzu to noticing a tear and two of those designs might have been him refamiliarizing himself with thread and needle.

Yuzu frowned faintly, “There wasn’t a tear when I put it in the laundry a week ago.” – then beamed at him, hugging his side, “Thanks, nii-san! I’m sure it looks magnificent.”

Going into his room after she let go to hang back by the door, he was confused, “I grabbed it out of the laundry yesterday?”

Ichigo wasn’t confused long though; there was a theory that made sense. He remembered Rukia wearing a dress just like Yuzu’s and cussing when the hem had caught on a fence, tearing it in exactly the spot that he’d found on Yuzu’s, which he had originally dismissed as a strange coincidence. But then there was also the manga Rukia had been reading earlier, which was something that Karin owned.

“You missing anything else?”

She nodded, “Yeah, my pajamas! I could have sworn I put them in my closet but they aren’t there.”

Opening his closet, making the mental note that the next time he saw Rukia – and probably after they dealt with the hollow that had its sights set on Orihime – he would ask if she was borrowing things from his sisters.

A moment later, he was staring blankly at Rukia, her eyes wide in surprise while she was trying to hide. Ignoring her for a second, because Yuzu was _right there_ and his sister was sweet but she would bring this up during dinner and Goat-Face would majorly _over_ - _react_ , he reached past her to where he’d stashed Yuzu’s dress, then shut the door on her.

Ichigo gave his sister her dress, then gently kicked her out of her room, “I’m sure your pajamas will show up soon. Why don’t you ask Karin if she won’t take a bath with you?”


	8. Rukia

There was maybe a minute of silence in Ichigo’s room, both of them holding their breath as they waited for Yuzu to go farther enough away that she wouldn’t overhear them.

Then the closet door was sliding open with a nearly violent energy, “Rukia!!”

Despite herself, she jumped, “What!”

His eyes narrowed before he was poking a finger directly in her face, “How long have you been in there!? And you’re wearing Yuzu’s pajamas, she’s looking for those!”

She winced, because there was no real way to answer that question without him getting upset – more upset – and unlike previous conversations where she redirected him by implying that he had an _interest_ in her and watching him back-pedal rapidly, that wasn’t really an option.

Her pager beeped right then.

“Not long. I came in while you went to take a bath, after seeing that Orihime got home safely.”

Which was the truth, and an answer, but she thought he had a good idea of how long regardless. Perhaps she should have asked before now, but it had been prudent that she remain in close proximity to him so he could do her job and that had been more important, and then she’d figured like the Women’s Shinigami Association had her lord brother, it would become a point of no contention after a while.

His eyes narrowed at her, and his voice was whip-crack sharp, “At least _ask_ first-!!”

Her eyes went wide as she looked at her pager, “There’s an order! Time and place-!” – before she rushed to put it away in favor of the glove Urahara had loaned her – “Here and now!!”

By a hair’s breadth did she shove him outside of his body as a crack appeared mid-air behind Ichigo, and a large dark hand reached through.


	9. Chapter 9

For just a second, he watched the arm reach through – _krak –_ fail to get _him_ – _krak, krak, krak –_ then grip his bed and pull himself through.

Then he was moving, pulling at his zanpaku-tō.

“Aim for the head!” “I _know_!!”

Even as he swung, the hollow was trying to dodge, and he knew it was too shallow.

It – **him** – _screamed_ as part of his mask broke; “GRAAAAAR!!!!”

He hesitated to strike again at the partial sight of a face he knew a moment too long, and the hollow escaped as he made a second swing, going back through the crack that he hadn’t pulled more than his torso from.

“It got away! Hurry, we need to go!!”

Ichigo was confused, pulled in too many directions.

(One part of him was pulling on his ear, demanding his attention, _go! GOO!!!_ )

(Another was frothing at the bit, pulling on the reins he held, **_that bastard tried to attack_ us _!? I’m going to_ enjoy _eating him!!_** )

(He didn’t _understand_ why he wasn’t surprised to see a human face behind the hollow’s mask, why he had been _expecting_ to see one the moment he’d realized the swing had been too shallow.

He didn’t understand why he’d _known_ who this hollow was even before the mask had broken, why seeing had just confirmed the feeling.)

“Wait! _Explain_ what I just saw. What’s going on?”

Rukia set both feet back on the ground from where she’d been half out his window, looking back at him with an almost pitying look, “Didn’t I say killing them with one blow to the head was the objective? It minimizes the chance of injury, but there’s another reason for it too. One blow to kill them so that you never learn the hollow’s human identity, because all hollows were humans once.”

It made him angry, and he got in her face, “Didn’t you say they were evil spirits?! Now I have to kill people!?”

She didn’t back down, “They are _monsters_ now! And we must kill them!”

He wanted to continue this argument right here, because that didn’t explain _anything_ , but they were on a clock, “ _Actually_ explain that on our way to Inoue.” – then turned around so she could hop on his back, because while she hadn’t lost quite _all_ of her reiatsu, her death-defying leaps over the rooftops was something that had nearly killed her gigai a day before when it fell short and they didn’t have _time_ for her pride right now – “She’s in danger _right now_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #remembering doesn't make it easy #bits and pieces of Kaien slipping through the cracks


	10. Chapter 10

“Hollows attack human and ghosts randomly – as you’ve seen, they’ll go after whatever is easiest and nearest but will attack anything with reiatsu – but _after_ they’ve eaten their own families.”

Ichigo _knew_ this – he didn’t know _why_ , but he did – but it didn’t mean the impact was any less.

“Why though?”

He _knew_ there was a reason why the hollow’s living family was attacked, but he couldn’t _remember._

“Hollows don’t eat souls because they are hungry – they do so to ease their pain.” Ichigo glanced at Rukia over his shoulder, but she was looking out ahead into the distance, “Hollows are fallen souls. Souls that were not admitted to the Soul Society by a shinigami. Souls that were left behind. Souls that weren’t saved from other hollows. They fall, lose their hearts somewhere along the way, mired in negative emotions until it consumes them – and become hollows. Then the hollow soul forever strives to fill the emptiness inside. They feel alone, and turn to those they loved most in life.”

The bottom dropped out of his stomach, and white noise buzzed in his ears, nearly drowning out what Rukia said next, “You’ve heard of widows who soon follow their husbands to the grave? Their husbands ate their souls.”

Whatever else she said was lost, because _that_ reminded him of his mom, and now he _knew_ what _should_ have happened to her, but hadn’t, and he wondered what had then _actually_ happened to his mom, because he hadn’t seen her soul past that day and he didn’t _think_ she’d been eaten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #are we never addressing the fact that Hollows are inherently tragic?  
> #also: there was an opportunity to foreshadow the Arrancar being Aspects #(Stark – loneliness; Ulquiorra – emptiness/depression; Nnoitra – envy; Szayel – madness; etc.) #and it didn’t quite happen #now it did
> 
> #but seriously - did it ever come up? #if we acknowledge the Quincy Arc that explains how/why she died #but did she get eaten or not?  
> (A/N: Seriously, if someone knows, I'd like to. I'm not even sure what I have qualifies as theory - just Plot for this 'verse.)
> 
> Edit: I now know and am chucking that piece of Canon to the curb. I have an Alternate Take now. ;)


	11. Rukia

Ichigo nearly missed a step when nearly to Orihime’s apartment, losing all color in his face.

There was a name on his tongue, but it didn’t seem to be able to make it past his lips in the right shape for him. It nearly made him stop with a frown on his face, _trying_ to say it, but then something spurned him on with more fervor a heartbeat later – before she could do more than raise her hand to smack him upside the head to remind him of the urgency.

At the foot of the building, he shrugged her off his back without a look, and dashed up and _through_ the wall like she had when she’d first met him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #what if Ichigo ISN'T the only reincarnated soul in Karakura, starting to remember


	12. Chapter 12

His sense of Tatsuki- Mi- _Tatsuki_ wavered, and Ichigo nearly forgot entirely about Rukia on his back.

(One part of him was trapped in memory with these same players, pleading, _let me fight alone-!_ )

Once she was on the ground though, he did actually forget about her a little bit, rushing forward and stepping through the wall. If he’d thought about that _at all_ , he _would_ have just broken through the wall, but because he’d acted on a half-remembered trick he probably couldn’t replicate intentionally, the wall had _let_ him through. It let him come through unnoticed into the scene inside Orihime’s apartment.

Between one blink and the next, he took in how there was two Orihime – one laying on the floor in a heap with a chain connecting her to the one standing up and rushing toward the hollow’s arm pinning Tatsuki – and how _Tatsuki_ was staring with wide, fearful eyes up at the hollow, gasping for breath as her chest was slowly crushed beneath the hollow’s weight.

“Hya!”

The hollow stumbled, releasing his hold on Tatsuki as Orihime rushed to kneel next to their friend, “Tatsuki! Stand up! Run away!”

He moved in front of them, pulling his weapon from his back to hold at the ready for when the hollow inevitably lashed out, “Take her and run, Inoue!”

“K-kurosaki-kun!” Her voice wavered with the sound of Tatsuki struggling to breath filling the air.

“It’s no use, Orihime. She’s dying.”

She swallowed roughly while turning towards the hollow, “H-how do you know my name?”

The silence that followed was heavy before it was broken with an _almost_ innocently said, “Have you forgotten my voice already?” Her startled gasp as she realized who was behind the mask was quickly drowned out by the hollow’s enraged roar, “That wounds me, Orihime!”

Ichigo was ready for the strike when it came, blocking it without giving an inch.

“You think you can stop me?” Blood slid down his blade as the hollow withdrew his hand, looking at him with narrowed eyes just barely visible from behind his mask and bangs.

(A part of him _shrieked_ , cackling madly, **_YESS!! Make him bleed! Then consume his strength for ourself!!_** )

He didn’t see the faint extra shine that flashed along the edge of his zanpaku-tō alongside the blood.

“Sorry Captain Overbite, that _is_ a shinigami’s job.” – lips twisting up challengingly – “If you want to eat Inoue, you have to go through me!”


	13. Chapter 13

For a moment, they stood staring at each other, neither moving.

He didn’t think about Orihime and Tatsuki behind him, or Rukia in the street below; he just watched the hollow lean back a bit, before out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hollow’s lower body coil up just in time to move his blade and block the tail that snapped out like a whip at him.

Even catching the sharpened edge of his zanpaku-tō, the tail just skittered off it with a screech of metal off stone. Ichigo saw _scales_ seconds before he went flying.

(A part of him sighed softly, not quite admonishing and almost . . disappointed, **your will to cut needs to be stronger than that if you wish to protect those girls.** )

His lips curled and stretched into a facsimile of a smile, as he twisted his blade in his hand and dug it into the air-space around him, acting as if there was an invisible floor to catch himself on and it was natural to stand mid-air. He missed Rukia’s surprised look as he was too busy not acknowledging the part of him that _knew_ that the skill to condense reishi into platforms to stand and fight on came from more than a rudimentary grasp of hohō, and that by all rights he _shouldn’t know how_.

Ichigo didn’t blink as blood oozed from a cut on his forehead down along the sides of his nose, just stared past the rubble of the wall he’d been knocked through to where the hollow leaned out towards him, “What’s wrong? You talk tough, but you’re just too _slow_.”

Then he was twisting to the side and raising his blade above his head, sharpened black edge up as the tail snapped down at him, slicing through scale and flesh like rice paper.

The hollow screamed, jaw opening wide and releasing a spray of faintly green liquid towards him, “You’ll pay for that, Kurosaki Ichigo!!”

His grip on his zankpaku-tō shifted, turning the weapon until he held it with both hands, pointed down.

(Part of him wanted to tap the kissaki to the ‘ground’ and say-

Only- _only_ , the air, it wouldn’t ripple like water from the kissaki that would no longer be an odachi but a-

This _wasn’t_ -

He didn’t _remember_ the _words_ to call _her_ -!)

Ichigo hissed as his attempt to side-step came too late, and the sprayed liquid hit his hands, “Acid?!”


	14. Rukia

Rukia watched with wide eyes seeing Ichigo stand in mid-air like it was the most natural thing to be doing.

She knew it required more than a basic skill with hohō to do, as while a certain degree of skill was required to graduate the Shinigami Academy, this was just above that. It was one thing to flash-step and stand mid-air for a moment, it was another to stand there for more than a moment.

It wasn’t in _her_ skillset; she’d focused more on kidō then on zanjutsu.

She couldn’t remember how good Shiba-fukutaichou had been with hohō. She wasn’t even sure she had _known_.

Then- then Ichigo had changed grips to one that she _knew_. For just a moment, she expected him to tap his blade to the ground and say _rankle the seas and heavens_.

For just a moment, she thought that was exactly what he meant to do, as his lips parted and he fought to say words that wouldn’t come to him.

She almost yelled Nejibana’s release for him, but something stopped her.

Sometimes, she’d looked at Ichigo’s zanpaku-tō, with that cross-guard and how he moved his blade, and thought of another zanpaku-tō. Sometimes, in the right light, the Shiba red of the ito was a dark blue, and she’d think _Nejibana_.

But Shiba-fukutaichou had died, and with him had gone his zanpaku-tō spirit, so it _couldn’t_ be Nejibana.

Sometimes, he moved like this blade was the one he’d been born to, but just slightly off, like it wasn’t an odachi but the size was right.

Like just now, when he’d raised the blade up above his head, that was a move that Shiba-fukutaichou would have never used.

It was for moments like that, that she held her tongue because this _wasn’t_ Nejibana; Ichigo had a zanpaku-tō spirit all of his own and offering up a name before he heard it would just confuse him, make it that much harder to commune with his zanpaku-tō and _hear_.

Then the acid hit Ichigo’s hands and he nearly dropped his zanpaku-tō, fumbling for a moment, as the hollow turned away and back towards Orihime, “Is it really _you_ , Sora-nii?”

A look flashed across Ichigo’s face that she couldn’t decipher, but she didn’t doubt he would take care of the hollow, so she left that to him.

What she needed to do was get inside that apartment because if Orihime could see her dead brother, then her spirit was outside of her body and even if the inga no kusari was damaged, as long as it was still _intact_ , then she could save the girl – both girls because there was another up there with the Inoue siblings.

Rukia cursed at him though when she tried the door at street level and found it locked, before spotting a drainage pipe that went right past Orihime’s second story window, and started climbing it, “Ichigo, you fool . . at least unlock . . the front door . ."


	15. Chapter 15

Ichigo stared into the room, where the hollow had bowed its head enough to only slightly look down on Orihime, eyes narrowing slightly as he listened, hand tightening on his tsuka despite how the burnt skin stretched and tore.

“Why? Why did you hurt Tatsuki and Kurosaki-kun?”

“Those two tried to tear us apart!”

His lips twisted.

“What?”

“After I died, you prayed for me every day. I watched you, always. It made me . . happy. I was dead, but your prayers eased my suffering. But a year passed. You became friends with that _girl_.”

He took a step, then another, and another, closer.

“After that . . you prayed for me less often!”

Ichigo stepped inside the room, “Then you entered high school, and Kurosaki showed up, and you stopped prayed for me altogether. At home, all you would talk to me about was them. It hurt me. I saw myself fading a little more from your heart each day!”

Orihime looked stricken, “No- No, Sora! That’s not-!”

There was a wild look in the hollow’s eyes, “I was so lonely! It was unbearable!!”

Ichigo moved closer, blade raised to swing as the hollow turned sharply with his hand raised, “You!! I’ll kill you!”

His eyes were bright with reiatsu, as he batted the hand away, and pointed his zanpaku-tou at the hollow, sharpened edge dark and red-tinted.

(One part of him was grinning with all of his teeth, **_go ahead and try!_**

Another was resolute, **finish this before he hurts anyone**.)

The hollow sneered at him, before holding a hand out a hand to Orihime, “Come with me, Orihime. Come . . back to when it was just the two of us.”

Her hands tightened into fists as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes, “Why? If you were lonely, you should have told me. Why did you have to hurt Tatsuki? Kurosaki-kun? Why, Sora? The brother I loved- would never do something like this!”

The hollow made to grab her, screaming, “I’ll kill you! It was all _your_ fault, little sister! I’ll kill you! Kill you!!”

Ichigo was right there, cutting off the hand before it could _touch_ Orihime, then the other one, teeth feeling too big and sharp for his mouth like daggers as his lips twisted up in a nearly-cruel smile, “Big brothers, do you know why we’re born first?”

His skin felt too small for him, as his anger built.

( _We’re here-_ )

“To protect the little ones who come after them!!”

(It wasn’t just Orihime- or Yuzu and Karin.

It was a little girl turned woman with a grin as sharp as her words, and a boy turned man who’d doted on the piglet that he’d brought home like a precious child of his own.

It didn’t matter if he remembered who they were, he’d _always_ been a big brother and would always be.)

“What kind of big brother says he’ll kill his own sister?! Even a monster shouldn’t say that!!”


	16. Chapter 16

Ichigo didn’t lower his blade as the hollow waved his hand-less arms, “I raised Orihime!! More like my daughter than my sister! I protected her!! It was us against the world! Just the two of us! She’s mine!! Nobody else can have her!! Least of all, _you_ , Kurosaki Ichigo! You will never . .” – before throwing himself at him, mouth open wide – “have her!!”

“Sora-nii!!”

He caught the hollow with his blade clashing against bone, meeting eyes crying blood with black licking at his own schlera, “ ** _A_** s i ** _f_** -! Captain Overbite!! She doesn’t _belong_ to anyone!”

“She’s _mine!_ Her soul is mine! I lived for her!! But she . . won’t live for me!!”

Then point-blank, he opened his jaw further and sprayed acid that only by hastily withdrawing a few steps to the side was evaded, except for where it ran a line up his left arm.

“Then she will die for me!!!” The hollow darted for Orihime without any regard for how Ichigo twisted his blade in his hand and dug it into what remained of his tail, and he just kept _going_ , slicing his lower body into two with his momentum.

Orihime opened her arms, smiling faintly even as he bit into her shoulder, hugging the back of the hollow’s head.

“Ori- hime? Ori . .” Ichigo rushed forward without his blade with not a second thought, because there was growing _horror_ in the hollow’s- Sora’s voice.

“I’m sorry, Sora-nii. I wanted to share them . . fun things at school, the happy stuff, things I liked, people I liked. . . At first, all I did was pray every day, but I thought that was wrong. Burdening you with my worries. I didn’t want you to see my sadness.” Ichigo didn’t need to pull Sora off his sister, because he’d already released her, rearing back as far as she would let him, and he saw the tears bud and fall from her eyes, his eyes, “So, I hid it from you! I only shared my happiness with you! So, you would know I was okay and you could find peace!”

Her arms slipped from Sora’s head to his neck, then down his shoulders and farther, “I . . didn’t realize it made you lonely. I had . . no idea . . Sora-nii.” – before her knees crumbled beneath her – “I’m sorry . . I hurt you. . . I love you.”

Ichigo pushed past Sora to catch her before she hit the ground, “Ori-!” “Inoue!!”


	17. Rukia

Rukia was panting as she finally made it into inside the building, leaning over with her hands on her knees, “It’s not too late . . !!” Then she was rushing over, shoving Ichigo over so that Orihime rested her head on her knees, “She can still be saved!”

She sighed in relief to see that Orihime’s chain of fate remained intact despite everything – despite having a hollow close its jaws around her chest – because that meant she was still alive. First, her soul wounds would have to be healed so that they didn’t transfer over, then she simply would have to be shoved back into her body. Without any immediate danger – and it was _very_ strange to be within hand’s reach of a hollow and it not only be _not_ attacking, but actually looking over at Ichigo’s blade as if seriously considering suiciding on it – Rukia turned her attention away from the mini-stand-off between Ichigo and the hollow to see how the other girl fared.

Only to find her blinking rapidly, but clearly looking at the hollow, or at least in his general direction. The girl’s eyes were wide and slightly unfocused but determined, and she dragged herself to her feet while clutching at her ribs, “She . . better . . be!”

Ichigo whirled around as the girl leaned on his zanpaku-tō, “Tatsuki!”

She didn’t look at him; with an almighty heave, she pulled the blade free to shakily hold it up, tip drooping while her arm shook slightly, but it still pointed unerringly at the hollow, “You . . hurt . . her!”

Rukia’s eyes went wide to see Tatsuki handling _Ichigo’s_ _zanpaku_ - _t_ _ō_ , because shinigami didn’t do that – didn’t handle pieces of someone else’s soul unless they were _very_ close – even hardly doing so when they were imprisoned, and that was only because the saya was considered acceptable in special circumstances to touch.

The hollow bowed his head, “I did. It was unforgivable of me. I claim to love – to have lived for her – and I almost _kill_ her, _doom_ her to suffer alongside me.”

The other girl – apparently called Tatsuki, and she was familiar in the way Orihime had been, which suggested that she was also in Ichigo’s class and she’d forgotten who she was as soon as she’d met her – narrowed her eyes, glaring fuzzily to the left of the hollow, “You . . . you stopped . . though.”

Glancing sideways at Ichigo, she watched him twitch, eyes flickering between the three of them – her, Orihime, and Tatsuki – silently fretting about who to help and who to protect just in case the hollow returned to attacking them. She kicked him in the calf as she started muttering kidō to heal Orihime, jerking her head towards Tatsuki when he looked at her.

“Because she is too good for me. Even after everything, she still loves me and- I couldn’t cause her more suffering.”

Tatsuki smiled faintly, “She’s too kind. For the world. For us.”

Sora wasn’t looking at her though – at any of them, just Orihime, “I knew why, Orihime, that you stopped praying. That you didn’t want to burden me with your troubles, but I am your big brother. I want to know all your woes and all your joys until the end of your days, even if I could no longer be there for you in person; I didn’t want you to stop praying. . .”


	18. Chapter 18

Lowering Ichigo’s zanpaku-tō, Tatsuki moved forward towards them with one arm wrapped around her chest, frowning at how Sora had quieted, “What are you looking at?”

“The hairpins . . I thought she would have thrown them out by now.”

Tatsuki shook her head even as she sat down next to Orihime and Rukia, looking exhausted, “She told me they were your first gift to her. She wears them every day.”

Ichigo leaned his weapon on his shoulder now that he had it back, not quite willing to put it up but considering it.

(A part of him looked at Orihime and Sora, and thought of his mother.

Another was quiet, _as long as you don’t die alone, your heart can live on, your mother’s lives on in you and his’ will in us._ )

“It’s the same; whether you’re dead or those left behind, we all feel alone. You just got so caught up in your own loneliness, that you forgot hers.”

Sora looked stricken, and before Ichigo could do more than shift his grip on his zanpaku-tō, he raised his hand – one that Ichigo could have sworn to have _cut off -_ to his face and started peeling his mask off.

_KRAK!!_

“Hey . . ! What are you doing?!”

(A part of him growled out, **_fool! He’ll die like that, he isn’t strong enough to survive tearing his mask off yet!_** )

There was something sad and settled on Sora’s face as he looked at him, “It’s all right. In this moment of sanity, I wanted to pass on before I hurt Orihime further.” Then at both him and Tatsuki, “So, in the future, if the two of you would continue to watch over her for me?”

Tatsuki grinned, and it was full of teeth, “No problem.”

He matched her after a moment, “Yeah, I’m sure Goat-Face will be ecstatic to gain another daughter. Yuzu and Karin will love to have an older sister.”

Sora’s grin was soft, tired but content, before he looked at his sister again just as she started to open her eyes, “Then . . goodbye, Orihime.”

She smiled just as softly, “Sora . . have a good day.”

The edges of his soul started to disintegrate.

( _Qu_ _ick! Cleanse his soul-!_ )

Ichigo twisted his zanpaku-tō around in his hand then quickly tapped the butt of the hilt to Sora’s forehead for a konsō.

Then he was gone, a black butterfly fluttering up into the night sky.

 


	19. Rukia

A part of Rukia didn’t want to follow protocol for the two girls, not the least because this wasn’t the typical situation, but they’d seen Ichigo in his shihakushō. It wasn’t _explicitly_ against the rules for one of the living to know – there were plenty who knew about the dead that a shinigami hadn’t helped pass on yet, _the_ _sight_ wasn’t exactly a rare phenomenon – but the knowledge of hollows, and of shinigami, was restricted.

It had been warned in the Academy that the Quincy had evolved in part because they’d known of hollows, and they’d arrogantly thought shinigami incompetent at taking care of hollows and so had set out for ways to take care of them themselves. Then instead of cleansing a hollow’s soul, they destroyed it, and so had started to upset the delicate balance of the three worlds.

Considering that she’d already given Ichigo her reiatsu, it was best that there were no witnesses of that, and that punishment would be many times compounded if it was found out that she let a situation happen that could become a Quincy 2.0.

Orihime sat up, “My wounds . . ! They’re better?! Never mind that, I have questions-!” – while Rukia reached into her pocket and pulled out a not-lighter that Urahara had given her, then flicked it to release a cloud of gas in the girl’s faces – “-to ask you . .”

Ichigo rushed over, “Inoue?! Tatsuki?! What’d you do?!”

She looked at him, and despite the mild panic he had for what she’d just done, he was a lot more settled than before – since before finding out hollows were once people actually – and she wondered how well the memory wipe souls went through at death dealt with the soul gaining reiatsu. It would explain why she kept seeing almost-moments of Shiba-fukutaichou peeking through with Ichigo, and why she did and did not have to explain things to him.

Once prompted, a part of him remembered what he’d once known.

A part of her felt like that was something she immediately needed to report, because how many shinigami had they lost over the decades that could be fast-tracked through the Academy to build up their ranks that had thinned in the last century. Another part of her knew that just giving Ichigo her reiatsu was enough to get her thrown into the Maggot’s Nest if she’d been still just a girl from the Rukongai, and likely get her stripped of all of her privileges regardless of being adopted into the Kuchiki. Knowledge like this, upsetting one of the basic tenets they’d learned at the Academy, the consequences would be worse.

She’d heard the stories about the Omnikitsukido, and the less she did to draw their attention, the better for her.

“Kioku-chikan, memory replacement. I erased tonight from their memories and gave them substitute ones. Only we can’t choose them, they’re random.”

He looked confused, “Random??”

Rukia smiled, “You’ll see what I mean tomorrow.”


	20. Chapter 20

Ichigo arrived at school, and everything was like normal.

Despite what Rukia had said about Tatsuki’s and Orihime’s memories being changed, he still expected for one or both of them to see him and start asking questions about what they’d seen. After all, he was fairly certain that his family – who’d had their memories _also_ changed – remembered in some form the hollow attack he’d met Rukia.

Particularly Goat-Face, who he thought remembered entirely.

Yuzu might honestly not consciously remember, but Ichigo thought Karin was doing her usual willful denial about what she’d seen. She’d been white-knuckling their mother’s bow in the evenings, practicing more often with it in a way that said she refused to not be able to fight back again.

It left him not quite believing Rukia when she said that Orihime and Tatsuki would have no memory.

“No, for real! A Yakuza gunman totally blasted a hole in my wall last night!!”

Ichigo blinked as he entered the classroom to Orihime wildly gesturing as she narrated what she seemed to have remembered.

Then he side-eyed Rukia, “Random? Or just the strangest of the plausible theories for the damage? My family thought the hole in the wall was from a truck crashing into it then driving away without anyone waking up.”

She made a face as the girls around Orihime all reacted exactly like they should, “Whatever, space girl.” “Orihime . . ?”

Then there was that one girl who drooled over Orihime’s bust, and Tatsuki periodically ranted about having to beat off from sexually assaulting Orihime, Chizuru he thought her name was, “That childlike mind of yours is really cute, princess.” And as he watched, he saw Tatsuki give the redhead the stink-eye when her gaze stuck below Orihime’s chin.

“It happened! Tell them Tatsuki!”

His old friend blinked, glancing at him for a second, “Y-yeah.”

The girls crowded Orihime and Tatsuki while shrieking, “WHAT!?”

He turned away with the knowledge that Tatsuki _remembered_ , and was keeping it to herself for now. He’d ditch Rukia at some point today and answer any questions she had as best as he could.

He didn’t see how Orihime winked at Tatsuki while the other girls spent several long seconds trying to comprehend that one of Orihime’s strange stories had _actually happened_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #Tatsuki remembers #Orihime remembers something #let Orihime remember saying good-bye to her brother 2k19


End file.
